La ruota del tempo (The Wheel of time)

I’ve been sick the last 2 weeks, but I’m better and answering WoT ?’s

Q: What part of the books should you be caught up on for the first season?
A: Depends on if you like to read something before you watch it or not.

Q: What are you finding most challenging about going from book to screen?
A: The hardest thing is the physicality of production. In the first book alone they go to more than 20 villages and cities. To try to do that is physically impossible for the show, so most of the work we don in the room is geographical, figuring how to condense the story and move it through places we can physically create.

Q: Do you have a favorite chapter from the whole saga? Mine is Veins of Gold.
A: So many. But Honey in the Tea is the one off the top of my head.

Q: Who is your favorite actor from NZ that you’ve cast?
A: Lucy Lawless. But that was another show. @reallucylawless

Q: We can’t wait to see Elayne, Aviendha and Min
A: Me either. Three of my favorites.

Q: Should Amazon do a better job of engaging fans love of theory & speculation. Pls embrace us!!
A: I love theory and speculation! What can they do to better engage you? Send suggestions and I’ll forward them along 🙂

Q: Has any post-production work begun or does that not start until filming is completed?
A: Nope! We do it simultaneously. Before the corona hit, I was prepping 2 episodes, shooting 2 episodes, in post on 4 episodes and writing Season 2 simultaneously :-0

Q: Will there be a soundtrack? Who’s the composer?
A: Of course! David Buckley. Plus a few incredible musical guests we’ve already had.

Q: Are Min/Elayne in season 1?
A: TWWaTWW

Q: Are you going to merge Min and Elayne?
A: Hell no

Q: First moment you were speechless on set?
A: First time walking into Emond’s Field with my mom

Q: Is mat fluent in the old tongue yet?
A: We’ve had a couple cast members speak in it already and they NAILED IT

Q: Which character has your favorite costume so far?
A: Ooo this is tough. Probably Geofram Bornhald.

Q: How is the cast and crew weathering the pandemic?
A: Our team in Prague did an amazing job of getting everyone out and keeping them safe. And now everyone’s home and we all live on Instagram.

Q: Who is your favorite Forsaken?
A: Ahhh. I love the ladies. Graendal, Lanfear, Moghedien. And Ishamael holds a special place in my heart the more time I spend with him

Q: What’s been your favourite shooting location so far?
A: Slovenia! Spectacular stuff there

Q: Yes or no. Have you had to make any cuts be it a scene or character, that has been painful for you?
A: Yes.

Q: How are you planning to handle the visualization of the weaves? Any little tidbits?
A: We are trying to stay as true to the books as possible. I’ve been giving a bunch of VFX folks long diatribes about channeling, weaves, threads, earth vs. air, etc and they early stuff has started coming in. It looks FUCKING AWESOME. I screamed when Rosamund started channeling

Q: Similar to Them performing in an old Inn, what other iconic moment filmed stands out to u?
A: Rand and Tam walking through the Westwood

Q: Blink twice if Min is in season 1.
A: 😉😉

Q: Will Jeff Probst be one of the Aiel? Can you make some calls?
A: If he dies his hair red 😉

Q: Which WOT book title best describes your self isolation experience?
A: A Memory of Light…

Q: Can we expect a trailer for the show anytime soon?
A: Probably not for a long while sadly.

Q: Can you guys do a big WoT Wed announcement during the hiatus to keep all us fans hyped instead of al
A: Yea! It would cheer us all up and we have some fun news

Q: Is Lan going to be as much or an absolute stud in the show as he is in the books?
A: You’ve seen @danielhenney right?

Q: If you were an Aes Sedai, what Ajah would you choose?
A: Such a good question. They all have merits but GREEN for the win. If only to hang with @priyankabose20

Q: Any funny behind the scenes stories?
A: I once walked up to Rosamund’s dummy to say hello and then pretended to check its makeup and told everyone they were doing great work

Q: Will we have to wait till season 2 to see any Aiel? (Other than Rand)
A: Nope. And the one you see will shock you. Hah. Amazon shouldn’t let me be on here when I’ve been cooped up for a week.

Q: RJ writes a lot of internal headspace stuff. What’s 1 hint on how the show will handle that?
A: That’s the biggest difficulty of any novel adaptation. Figuring out how to make the internal monologue come out clearly to the audience. A lot of the changes we make and stories we tell differently are designed to serve exactly that purpose – showing you what those characters internal monologues from the book are without them just saying it out loud in exposition

Q: Are you using taller actors to portray the Aiel, or camera trickery?
A: Trying to get tall folks. But I’m less concerned with height and more concerned with acting ability.

Q: Since JordanCon was cancelled, can we maybe get an extra treat next month?
A: Sure! What do you want?

Q: Do you have a favorite Wise One?
A: Avi

Q: How many trollocs do I have to take out to become a writing assistant?
A: Violence is never the answer

Q: What would you say the CGI to practical ratio is going to be?
A: Tring to do as much in camera as we possibly can!

Q: How are you handling sword forms and their names?
A: We have a for real sword master on the show who walks into every room and tests out everything as a weapon. He could most definitely kill me with any item in my office.

Q: How are the horses on set? Is Mandarb spectacular?
A: They are so great. Honestly I love our horses. Mandarb and Aldieb are downright sexy

Q: When will we get more casting announcements to hold us over?
A: I’ll try to get them to put out something soon. A lot of folks in all departments are affected by the state of the world right now though, so I can’t promise a timeline

Q: will we see the prologue from the Eye of the World on screen in season 1
A: You will hear that phrase

Q: What has been your favorite set so far?
A: Fal Dara!

Q: Please tell me you’ve cut Narg!!
A: Never!!

Q [wotseries.com questions]: To what extent has Harriet McDougal been involved with the project?
A: She’s a consulting producer so she’s been out to Prague to the sets and reads all the scripts and sends me her notes on them. She and Maria are hugely helpful for maintaining the truth of the series and always keep me honest when it comes to things that change too much
Editorial note: this makes us very HAPPY

Q: Is any aspect of the show still in development, or has it all stalled because of the virus?
A: A lot can be done virtually! I’m still doing VFX, editing and the Season Two Virtual Writers Room! And I can do it all in pajamas

Q: Did you read The way of kings or Mistborn? Please make a tv adaptation for them too
A: Read both. Love both.

Q: Will min, elayne, and avienda have to be combined into a single character?
A: Girl you crazy. I’m not going to combine huge characters like that. Maybe sometimes a minor character folded into a more major one to make better use of our cast but nothing nutso

Q: RJ created 1000’s of character. Given that did you feel the need to create new characters?
A: Anyone “new” is inspired by characters in the books or a number of characters combined. If we paid to cast all speaking roles in the book we could only afford to have a radio play

Q: So far, what is your favorite prop in the show?
A: Great Serpent Ring. We all want one.

Q: Will Loial portray the Ogier species, or will he be humanised for screen?
A: He’s an Ogier!

Q: How involved, if involved at all, is Sanderson in the writers room?
A: Brandon is hugely helpful. I talked to him before we started Season Two while he was in Prague to get advice and he reads all the scripts and gives notes. He’s incredibly thoughtful and understands the process of adaptation and what’s required from it. I feel so lucky to have him involved. I would have him do more if I could make him!

Q: What words of hope would you offer a fan afraid that the show will cut out a lot of content?
A: I genuinely think we are cutting less than most people think. When I see people ask questions like “are you cutting Min?” It blows my mind. I don’t know how you do an adaptation without some of these characters. I think it’ll be more of the smaller stories you’ll miss. We can’t have Rand and May (sic) travel to many many inns on their travels across the countryside for instance. It’s just not producible. So that will be more of what you miss I think, and the books always exist to read for that 🙂

Q: I think Bella is such an important character, will the same horse play bella through the series
A: We’ve already had to have two Belas. It turns out a horse for riding on film is not the same as a horse for pulling a cart and SHE MUST DO BOTH

Q: Can you please make sure you do a great job? Book are so great
A: This is are a really good idea
Editorial note: Bloody flaming right!

Q: Now you’ve met them, settle the score: who’s better with women? Rand, Mat or Perrin?
A: I think they’d all say it’s the other

Q: Will the show be understandable for those who didn’t read the books?
A: That’s the idea. If there are little things they don’t get though, luckily google exists

Q: Who is your favorite Aes Sedai in the books? And you can’t say Moiraine/Siuan or the Wonder Girls
A: So many rules. I honestly love all of them though (except Galina that bitch) Alanna Liandrin and Verin are probably my Top 3. And Siuan! There’s too many I love. Sheriam! Pevara!

Q: How has it been to work with your incredibly talented cast? Also… dinner’s ready
A: Okay I have to go eat now. I think I did this right. Nxt time I’ll use different colors. I don’t know why it was pink and orange the whole time.
Editorial Note: That definitely was a question by Taylor Napier 🙂

Final Note by Rafe:

Sorry I didn’t get to everyone’s questions. Genuinely more than a thousand came through in like 15 minutes. I will try to do this again soon.

Hope everyone is safe and sound and has a boyfriend who makes them dinner when they’re sick. If you don’t, mine is for sale